Things to do / Travel Guide
Address:75 Martin Luther King Jr Dr SW
Atlanta, Georgia
Tel:
(404) 523-2311
Underground Atlanta is a shopping and entertainment district where you can enjoy over six blocks of shopping, dining, history and music. A popular tourist and nightlife destination, the Underground offers plenty for visitors of all ages to do and see.
The Underground is called "the city beneath the city" because it is built beneath the viaducts built over the city's many railroad tracks to accommodate automobile traffic. Each level has two main halls, still called Upper and Lower Alabama and Pryor Streets. The buildings were built during Atlanta's post-Civil War boom. Many 19th-century architectural features are still intact, including decorative brickwork, granite archways, ornate marble, cast-iron pilasters, hand-carved wooden posts and gas streetlamps. There are a series of information plaques pointing out historic buildings and facades. Take a guided history tour to learn about Atlanta's past from the Civil War to Civil Rights. On the one-hour tour, you will hear stories of how Atlanta began and what life was like in the 1800's.
The Humbug Square Street Market offers fortune-tellers, caricature drawings, homemade candy and face painting. An inflatable amusement area keeps kids busy, and the food court helps you to re-charge. The Underground has a stationary balloon ride that ascends up to 500 feet, allowing you to enjoy enjoying 360-degree panoramic views of the city.
The Underground is a center of Atlanta nightlife. Everyday there's live entertainment on multiple stages. Enjoy Atlanta's most talented musicians featuring jazz, rock, R & B, soul, gospel and more. Come back at night for live jazz, a variety of music, or visit one of the nightclubs, bars, or pubs in Kenny's Alley. Bars in the Underground have a 4:00 AM closing time - 90 minutes later than the rest of the city, and you can also take alcoholic drinks from bar to bar. Every New Year's Eve, there is a grand Peach Drop celebration, when a giant foam peach drops from a small tower, followed by fireworks.
The Underground is located in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, near the intersection of the MARTA rail lines. While it is an interesting place to visit, the area is not so safe at night, so make sure to go with a group if it is your destination after dark.